


Beverage and Leverage

by unspeakable3



Series: welcome to the most noble and ancient house of black [67]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Black Family-centric (Harry Potter), Drabble, Drabble Collection, Ficlet, Ficlet Collection, Gen, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), POV Regulus Black, Regulus Black Deserves Better, Regulus Black Feels, Regulus Black-centric, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Walburga Black's A+ Parenting, Wordcount: 100-1.000, Young Sirius Black
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 17:42:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21275150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unspeakable3/pseuds/unspeakable3
Summary: “I will ask you again: where is your brother?”





	Beverage and Leverage

****He hesitated in the doorway. She was sitting straight-backed, holding a delicate saucer and teacup in her hands, an unreadable expression on her face. He swallowed.

“You wished to see me, Mother?”

She turned her head towards him, slowly. “Yes, Regulus. Do come in.”

He moved to stand beside her chair and tried very hard to keep himself from fiddling with his sleeves.

“I trust you have had an agreeable day.”

“Quite agreeable, thank you, Mother.”

She took a sip of tea. He tried not to think about how much her shining red fingernails looked like freshly-spilt blood.

“Where is your brother?” she asked, so politely.

Regulus kept his hands firmly clasped behind his back and stared over the top of his mother’s head towards the window. The branches of the scorched oak tree were tapping against the glass in the light summer breeze. It had been scorched Regulus’s whole life; struck by lightning the night Sirius was born, he had always been told. A thunderstorm during labour was a sign of the child’s strength and power, they said.

The weather had been dull and grey, the day Regulus had come into the world.

“Regulus,” she said. “I asked you a question.”

“In his bedroom. I assume,” Regulus said, a little too quickly.

She stared at him with scrutinising eyes, then gave him a rather unnerving smile.

“Have some tea, Regulus.”

He sat reluctantly on the low couch opposite her and waited while she poured a cup for him. Unusual. She usually called Kreacher to serve.

“Have you been set much homework these holidays?”

“No,” he said, shifting in his seat. “Although I have been reading ahead for NEWTs.”

“Good. Your father and I expect great things,” she pushed the teacup into his hands. “Drink up, Regulus.”

He drank, feeling rather unnerved by her sudden interest in his study habits. Perhaps she had low expectations for Sirius’s exam results and didn’t want both sons to be a disappointment.

“You said your brother is in his room?”

“He was.”

“But he isn’t now?”

“No. He left through the window.”

Regulus blinked. He looked down at the perfectly innocent-looking tea, and then back at his mother. She was doing a poor job of hiding her self-satisfied smirk behind her own teacup. Professor Slughorn’s voice echoed in his head: _“Perfectly clear and completely odourless, Veritaserum is the most powerful Truth Potion in existence…” _

He dropped his teacup to the coffee table with a clatter and rose from his seat-

“Sit back down, Regulus.”

Her wand was in her palm now, pointing at him. He sat.

“I will ask you again: where is your brother?”

“Somewhere in London,” he said, his shoulders drooping. He stared at his hands and wished he were able to fight the Veritaserum- _no_. He wished that Walburga Black wasn’t the type of witch who would drug her child because this wasn’t _normal_ motherly behaviour, surely? “He never tells me where, exactly.”

“Did he go alone?”

“No. He went to meet with Potter and Pettigrew.”

“The blood-traitor and the half-blood,” she snarled. “At least he hasn’t sunk to the same depths of depravity as that cousin of yours and started consorting with _mudbloods_.” 

Regulus sniffed and kept his gaze fixed firmly on his hands. She hadn’t asked him, so he needn’t tell her.

“Very well, Regulus. You may return to your reading.”

“Yes, Mother.”

He rose, and almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to get away from her. With a bit of luck, he would be able to warn Sirius before she got to him.


End file.
